Geography

The Philippine islands are an archipelago of over 7,000 islands lying
about 500 mi (805 km) off the southeast coast of Asia. The overall land
area is comparable to that of Arizona. Only about 7% of the islands are
larger than one square mile, and only one-third have names. The largest
are Luzon in the north (40,420 sq mi; 104,687 sq km), Mindanao in the
south (36,537 sq mi; 94,631 sq km), and Visayas (23,582 sq mi; 61,077 sq km).
The islands are of volcanic origin, with the larger ones crossed by
mountain ranges. The highest peak is Mount Apo (9,690 ft; 2,954 m) on
Mindanao.

Government

Republic.

History

The Philippines' aboriginal inhabitants arrived from the Asian mainland
around 25,000
BC
They were followed by waves
of Indonesian and Malayan settlers from 3000
BC
onward. By the 14th century
AD
, extensive trade was being conducted with India,
Indonesia, China, and Japan.

Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain,
explored the Philippines in 1521. Twenty-one years later, a Spanish
exploration party named the group of islands in honor of Prince Philip,
who was later to become Philip II of Spain. Spain retained possession of
the islands for the next 350 years.

The Philippines were ceded to the U.S. in 1899 by the Treaty of Paris
after the Spanish-American War. Meanwhile, the Filipinos, led by Emilio
Aguinaldo, had declared their independence. They initiated guerrilla
warfare against U.S. troops that persisted until Aguinaldo's capture in
1901. By 1902, peace was established except among the Islamic Moros on the
southern island of Mindanao.

The first U.S. civilian governor-general was William Howard Taft
(1901–1904). The Jones Law (1916) established a Philippine
legislature composed of an elective Senate and House of Representatives.
The Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) provided for a transitional period until
1946, at which time the Philippines would become completely independent.
Under a constitution approved by the people of the Philippines in 1935,
the Commonwealth of the Philippines came into being with Manuel Quezon y
Molina as president.

On Dec. 8, 1941, the islands were invaded by Japanese troops. Following
the fall of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's forces at Bataan and Corregidor,
Quezon instituted a government-in-exile that he headed until his death in
1944. He was succeeded by Vice President Sergio Osmeña. U.S. forces
under MacArthur reinvaded the Philippines in Oct. 1944 and, after the
liberation of Manila in Feb. 1945, Osmeña reestablished the
government.